An Effective Consensus

[KaiserDave]

I’d really like to support a pro-civil rights economic conservative, but it looks like the party coalitions are moving away from that. So I guess I’m all in for Romney/Brooke!

Don’t worry I’ll have a role for Jack Kemp

[Stm85]

I’d really like to support a pro-civil rights economic conservative, but it looks like the party coalitions are moving away from that. So I guess I’m all in for Romney/Brooke!

Don’t worry I’ll have a role for Jack Kemp

Well that’s good news, looking forward to reading about that.

[KaiserDave]

Polling Map (Gallup)


George Romney/Edward Brooke: 54.9%/408
Wilbur Mills/Henry Jackson: 44.9%/130

Gallup Poll: President Romney Job Approval September 1972



Wikimedia Commons

Approve: 61%
Disapprove: 35%

[KaiserDave]

1972 Presidential Debate on NBC News





Wikimedia Commons for Seal and Romney, Alchetron the Free Social Encyclopedia for Mills

Welcome to NBC News and tonight we're hosting the 1972 presidential debate, I'm Edwin Newman and I'll be moderating this debate. In a moment we will welcome the candidates, President George Wilcken Romney and Congressman Wilbur Daigh Mills. There were be no clapping, except at the end, and right now. We now welcome President George Romney, and Congressman Wilbur Mills.

(Candidates enter to applause)


Congressman Mills, your campaign has focused on what you call "saving our fiscal future." What do you mean by that?

Wilbur Mills: I think I'm being very direct Edwin. We are on the precipice of a fiscal calamity in this country. Many people have seen how I've been sounding the call from the Ways and Means committee that have to do better with budgeting, we have to live within our means and we have to rein in spending. We're running these big budget deficits to fund programs that have questionable effectiveness, and the warning signs are there. Investment is now slowing, recovery is slowing, this nation can't afford another recession but President Romney is driving us off the cliff. My campaign is about working with the details of government to make government work, I know how to do it because I've spent my career doing it, we can do better than what we have now.

Mr. President, your response?

George Romney: I think the pessimistic prognostication of Congressman Mills is not really based on economic reality. He's been squawking about inflation for years now, but inflation is under control, he's been warning us that unemployment is about to skyrocket, unemployment has gone down since I was inaugurated as President. So what's actually going on here? I see a stronger economy. We invested in communities, we moved this country away from an antiquated monetary policy, and we've stopped sending poor boys to die in Vietnam, we've brought them home and we've brought the money home. The last four years have been an economic success story.

Wilbur Mills: Folks, listen very carefully to what the President just said. Because in a few month's time we're gonna think back to what he just said. Economic success story. Because that's the opposite of what's coming, I can tell you in Congress they're worried. They're not going to tell you but I will. We need to save our fiscal future, President Romney can throw around all the sunshine he likes but it doesn't hide or change the facts. We need to rein in spending, that's why I propose a cost of living adjustment to social security, an alternative minimum tax, and cutting all this spending. You won't hear plans from the President other than more spending.


President Romney, you've said to the press that the Democratic Convention was "a sham", care to elaborate?

George Romney: Well I think the voters were cheated Edwin. The voters of the Democratic Party didn't vote for Congressman Mills, they voted for Robert Kennedy. But Congressman Mills is good at playing the game of politics, he's been doing it since before the War. He played his cards right, and he passed around enough favors and from what's been said enough cash to buy the nomination. I don't work like that, I haven't served in Congress for thirty years. I'm a businessman, and an executive. I try to do what's best for my community and my company back in the auto business, for Michiganders as Governor and the American people as President. Wilbur Mill's conduct suggests he's more in it for himself. I extend an olive branch to all Democrats who feel disenchanted by the dubious process at the convention, and I think we share a lot of common ground. Maybe more than they'd like to admit. (Laughs)

Wilbur Mills: It's these types of accusations and baseless claims that get people disengaged from politics. The President doesn't have the evidence to back up these claims and he won't find any because they don't exist. I won my party's nomination fair and square, and I'm gonna win this election fair and square.

George Romney: I don't think so Wilbur.


Congressman Mills you've been very critical of what you call "forced busing" and "government inference", are you opposed to civil rights legislation?

Wilbur Mills: No, no I am not. I did vote against the Civil Right's Act, because I had and I still do have problems with the implementation. And I'm being proven right. But I support equal rights for all people, I support civil rights in this country. Henry Jackson and I both agree that we need civil and human rights for every American. Every American. What I have a problem with in that 1960 legislation is the loopholes that allow for the practices we're seeing now. The Federal Government under President Romney is acting like a Soviet Commissar. They're forcing kids to be bused across towns to different schools, they're going into communities and telling them who can and can't live there. They're relocating families, this is dangerous, authoritarian government inference. Not only is it a waste of money, but it is profoundly unconstitutional. If President Romney did what he's doing now in 1776, our founding fathers would have a problem with it. A big one. The federal government can't tell you how to live your life, and where to life your life, I won't. President Romney will.

George Romney: What we just heard folks is that Congressman Mills opposes civil rights. He won't enforce it.

Wilbur Mills: Not true, not true. Mr. President you know that's false.

George Romney: You voted against every major civil rights legislation, you opposed the Voting Rights Act, you oppose actually integrating our schools and in housing. So what do you support?

Wilbur Mills: I support the constitution, do you?

[KaiserDave]

Campaign 1972

Wikimedia Commons and Alchetron Free Encyclopedia



The Presidential Debates were a major win for the Mills campaign. Not only did many have to agree he won the economic section of the debate, but many believe he got the better of the President on the issues of busing and enforcing desegregation. Mills got two birds with one stone, he got enough segregationist southern voters on side to increase his margins there, and he got fence sitting moderates who didn't want another George Wallace firebrand. His numbers leaped, and he soon got in striking distance of the President. Mill's campaign was based on Town Halls, instead of big rallies he gathered crowds large and small at local diners or for big crowds local auditoriums and answered their questions. He answered economic questions with detail and specificity, pushing for balanced budgets and fiscal restraint. These town halls became a hit, in Seattle, Denver, Indianapolis, and even in Philadelphia Mills began to see his numbers rise. And in the white suburbs, a Democratic revolt was in full spring.

Romney moved to fire up his base. He went into the northeast and midwest to speak with farmers and to black voters. He doubled down on anti poverty programs, on civil rights, and on farm supports. He held large rallies across the northeast and midwest, in the plains states he spoke in big outdoor fields, at one Colorado rally he spoke in front of a red cliff face to a crowd. He refused to run away from his record. He made sure to appear with Vice President Brooke as much as possible. This had two effects. It brought over angry Kennedy and McGovern Democrats, especially given Romney's strong emphasis on ending the war. Romney received support from Jackie Robinson who campaigned with the President in Brooklyn, and Martin Luther King who usually didn't give direct endorsements said in a sermon that "President Romney has walked the path of justice." However, southern voters and moderates outside the south began to leak over to Mill's campaign, who far from being a Wallace style populist, was perceived as a moderate, despite the Romney campaign claims otherwise.

As November 7th approached the anxiety in the Romney camp began to grow. Polls showed a tightening race. Even in places where the Romney campaign thought they were strong, now looked tenuous. Staffers began to report weakening poll numbers, and some moderate Nixon Republicans were perhaps leaking over to Mills as they perceived Romney as too left wing. That being said most moderate voters outside the south and border states were definitely with the President, he was no leftist, and always campaigned on themes of good government and sensible policy. However, Mills was soon within the margin of error in the polls.

However everything changed in the last week of October. First an audio tape was leaked to the Washington Post, of what was believed to be Wilbur Mills at some point calling Martin Luther King Jr, a "n***** communist, a f***ing c***."  He denied it was him, but King told his congregants that Mills "a terrible wolf in the garb of a meek lamb!" Then the dam broke further, a series of photos were leaked to the New York times of Congressman Mills receiving a lap dance from a stripper. There were also photos of Mills half naked drinking straight from a bottle of bourbon. More reports began to circulate on an extramarital affair Mills was having with this stripper. Romney didn't even need to say anything, the photos were the attack he needed all by himself. Mills issued a weak statement questioning the source of the photos and admitting to having a problem with drinking. Henry Jackson, a man often utilized by the campaign refused to comment. He later said the photos were real and he was not pleased. Combined with strong economic numbers, the polling momentum went in a very different direction.

[Snazzrazz Mazzlejazz]

Well there goes Mills, everybody say hello to four more years of Romney!

[KaiserDave]

Folks, cast your ballots!

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

I guess I'd go for Romney/Brooke.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Romney

[Mini Mike]

Romney/Brooke all the way! Down with Mills!

[America Needs R'hllor]

Romney/Brooke!

[KaiserDave]

Campaign 1972: Election Night

Romney/Brooke: 55.2%/285 ✓
Mills/Jackson: 44.1%/75

The band played "Stars and Stripes Forever" as George Romney and Edward Brooke walked onstage with their families. The crowd was full of waving American flags and Romney signs, and tremendous cheer. Yet again the Romney coalition had been strung together and yet again George had won a landslide. It looked like it would be an ever bigger landslide. The middle of the road moderates, farmers, black voters, and liberal Humphrey/McCarthy/Kennedy Democrats all rallied behind Romney for a big landslide. Even Conservative Christians too, furious at Mills. The suburbs at least had shifted towards Democrats since 1968, but whereas strategists predicted a seismic change, there was only a few percentage points of difference. Mills had collapsed, even Henry Jackson his own running mate had abandoned the sinking ship. He told reports on the morning of election day that "I or Representative Mills will not be elected, the party has a lot of thinking to do." When the results came in the Democrats were crushed, even many of the populist leaning poorer counties in the midwest and border states that had voted for Wallace abandoned him. It was a total and complete rout. The only question was how big it would be. In Congress the coat tails were there, Jerry Ford's House majority looked like it would expand in south Florida, in California, and even in Texas. In the Senate, Republicans were winning seats in the Northeast and west, including in New Mexico. A wave was in effect. Mills called Romney to concede the race, and Romney now spoke to his supporters.

FOUR MORE YEARS FOUR MORE YEARS FOUR MORE YEARS FOUR MORE YEARS

The chant was broadcasted on the television networks as the President smiled and his sons Scott and Mitt Romney as they were known smiled and clapped next to him. Already the both of them were being promoted as future politicians.

"I think the votes are in folks, and I think we did it." Romney smiled as the clapping and cheering rang out again.

[You don't see any blue avatars now]

[Elcaspar]

[KaiserDave]

Election Results

George W. Romney/Edward W. Brooke: 408-57.49% ✓
Wilbur A Mills/Henry M. Jackson: 130-42.22%

Good evening I'm Walter Cronkite and it's November 8th on CBS Evening News and the 1972 Presidential election is over. President George Romney of Michigan has cruised to a massive reelection. In a landslide, the biggest since Franklin Roosevelt. President Romney declared victory, and Representative Mills has conceded the race. Gerald Ford remains Speaker of the House and Mike Mansfield remains as Senate Majority Leader. But there are many questions, how did the President win? Was this an approval of Romney's policies, or a rejection of Wilbur Mill's conduct? Well we know that the midwest, northeast, and west went strongly to Romney. He improved on his 1968 performance in rural areas there and in cities, but retreated in suburbs. But the big numbers, he won a massive majority of black voters, and a vast majority of those who voted for George McGovern or Robert Kennedy in the primaries. He won self declared moderates and he won farmers. That's a winning coalition. Mills won the south, he did well in conservative white suburbs, but he fell from Wallace's '64 and '68 performances with workers and lower income voters. On the whole it was a landslide, voters abandoned Mills in droves. It's hard to see how this was not in some way a defense of Romney's administration, you can't win this big and not have significant support. But there certainly was anger at Mill's conduct, Democrats left him, Evangelicals stayed home, Catholics were furious, that can explain the huge margins in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Definitely a big big win, George Romney is reelected and the nation's first black Vice President Edward Brooke is reelected with him. What will Democrats do next after two landslides? That's definitely a question on their minds. Senator Jackson has said the party needs new direction, Senator Church has said they need big changes, Senator Ted Kennedy has said they need "a massive change or the Democratic Party is doomed to win just a few southern states in every election." Definitely many lingering questions for Democrats in this country. And that's the way it is, this is Walter Cronkite on November 8th, 1972.


Senate
Democrats: 61 (-3)
Republicans: 38 (+3)
Independents: 1 (+0)

Flips:  New Mexico (D to R), New Hampshire (D to R), Virginia (D to R), Rhode Island (D to R), South Dakota (R to D)

House of Representatives
Republicans: 249 (+18)
Democrats: 186 (-18)

[We Live in Black and White]

Audible representation of the Democratic Party c. 1972:

[KaiserDave]

Audible representation of the Democratic Party c. 1972:

Nice

[OSR stands with Israel]

Fun fact there was a poll done in OTL between Nixon and George Wallace in 1972 and these were what the results were.


https://theharrispoll.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Harris-Interactive-Poll-Research-WALLACE-TRAILS-NIXON-BY-LARGEST-MARGIN-1972-05.pdf

Nixon led in the South 50-41 and only trailed the Deep South by 1 lol. So its possible if Wallace was the nominee then Nixon wins all but AL and MS

[You don't see any blue avatars now]

Frank Church 1976.

[KaiserDave]

Wikimedia Commons and Image Modified by Me

The Romney Administration

The second inauguration of George Wilcken Romney as President of the United States was held on January 20, 1973 at the East Portico of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. This was the 47th inauguration and marked the commencement of the second term of Romney as President and Edward William Brooke as Vice President. Chief Justice Thurgood Marshall administered the oath of office of both the President and Vice President. Lenore Romney held the Bible for her husband as it custom. President Eisenhower and Truman had passed between this inauguration and the last one, leaving the only former Presidents in attendance as Richard Nixon and George Wallace. President Romney delivered a speech calling for "the entire nation to press forward in the struggle for a kinder, gentler, and more just society." The speech was well received. Some cabinet shake ups have occurred, Hiram Fong left as Attorney General to prepare to return to the Senate and Erwin Griswold replaced him. Bill Scranton left the State Department and Henry Kissinger was elevated to replace him, George Herbert Walker Bush became National Security Advisor and Jackie Robinson was appointed to lead to newly formed Office of Economic Opportunity.

The year began with a major Supreme Court decision. In Roe vs. Wade the court overturned all state bans on abortion, which began to feed the growing evangelical movement and caused a conservative anger. President Romney said, "we may disagree on the decision, but the Supreme Court deserves our respect." In other news, former President Richard Nixon was elevated to the position of commissioner of Major League Baseball, in a somewhat surprising event an ecstatic Nixon said, "my life is far from over and this is just my current calling."  President Romney continued his push for progressive legislation. He moved to mandate special education for the disabled, he campaigned nationwide for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, and helped pass Birch Bayh's and Patsy Mink's Title IX, mandating equal rights in regards to gender in schools. All the while, he refused to enact tax increases. But he did agree to some wage and price controls to assuage worries about inflation, but these were strictly temporary, on a 60 day basis.

However, this news would soon be overshadowed. First, Leonid Brezhnev spoke to America on Television, but he looked remarkably frail, the next week the Soviet Premier died of "complications of surgery.". He was given a lengthy state funeral. The political infighting to succeed him began. When the dust settled no one man took control, a troika emerged. Dimitry Ustinov was made Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Mikhail Suslov was made General Secretary of the CPSU, and Andrei Gromyko as Minister for Foreign Affairs. As for the public spotlight, on the globe stage it was Gromyko and in the USSR it was Suslov. The three tried to break away from the Brezhnev stagnation, while preserving the ideological structure of the Union. On the whole there were no radical changes. However that was just the beginning. In the early summer the Paris Accords, already weakened by violations by both sides came apart. The North Vietnamese launched a major offensive, over the course of the summer the ARVN fell apart and soon Saigon was under siege. Romney however had already ordered an evacuation of diplomatic and military staff so by the time the tanks started rumbling into the city all the Americans were already gone and all the papers were shredded and burned if not already flown out of the country. The ARVN was routed in fighting outside the city and the city surrendered without much of a fight. Before long the united "Socialist Republic of Vietnam" was proclaimed. This was still a major hit to the President's popularity, despite the fact that the war was no longer popular. Vietnam had been lost to communism. Democrats lamented how Romney had withdrawn too fast or too slowly, and the headlines were full of shots from both sides. Romney would eventually seek diplomatic contact with the united country. In South America there was a brief coup against that country's socialist government, but the plotters were put down and their ringleader, General Augusto Pinochet was found after committing suicide. 

The economy continue to recover from the 68-69 recession, and growth began to return to pre recession levels, jobs grew, and the deficit spending began to pay off. Especially among Black Americans, living standards began to improve and high paying jobs became more available. The Romney Justice and HUD department were aggressively pushing desegregation, without a break. Romney was committed to these policies, but on the local level resentment against the aggressive Republican policy began to grow. Wilbur Mills may have been thrashed, but wherever possible the Democratic Party pushed against "forced busing" and "relocations" without ever outwardly opposing civil rights. In the South segregationist governors continued to resist implementing voting rights, but Congress and the Supreme Court backed up the President every time in his bids to enforce them.

Then the Yom Kippur War broke out, Anwar Sadat launched a surprise attack against Israel with the support of Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and countries across the Arab world. Romney was quick to support Israel, offering the latest in anti tank technology and shipments of ammunition, even air power. But this had a heavy price. OPEC launched an oil embargo against the west, and oil prices quadrupled. Gas prices went up to 57 cents a gallon. However, this was Romney's background, gas. He immediately pushed for fuel efficiency standards, he meticulously analyzed every aspect of the problem, committing enthusiastically to solving the problem, he visited refineries, met with executives, and began to push for the development of a Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a Department of Energy, and  all the while he repeated his maxim when he was in the auto industry. The "gas guzzling dinosaurs" should be done away with and that fuel efficiency was the future. He also pushed for an Alaska pipeline and more domestic production. Despite Romney's efforts, his popularity suffered, although many appreciated his efforts. Israel won the war but the high prices persisted. Romney ended the chaotic year with the passage of the Endangered Species Act, and then celebrated Christmas at home.

[We Live in Black and White]

Have fun in Hell, Augusto.

[Elcaspar]

Have fun in Hell, Augusto.

[KaiserDave]

Gallup Poll: President Romney Job Approval December 1973



Wikimedia Commons

Approve: 53%
Disapprove: 41%

[Snazzrazz Mazzlejazz]

Romney mostly fixing the oil crash will have some interesting butterflies methinks.

[KaiserDave]

Romney mostly fixing the oil crash will have some interesting butterflies methinks.

I wouldn't say "mostly fixed" but yes, he's done well given his experience in that area.